Huckleberry Clafoutis by Shaun Velez

(This recipe appeared in the Winter 2018 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)

The dessert is a traditional clafoutis tart using huckleberries and speculoos for the crust. I pair it with a goat’s milk sorbet to cut the richness of the custard. It’s accented with a huckleberry tuile on top to add a visually intriguing appearance.

Yield: 14 servings

Goat’s Milk Ice Cream

• 327 g goat’s milk
• 43 g heavy cream
• 2 pieces star anise
• 23 g milk powder
• 2 g ice cream stabilizer
• 34 g glucose powder
• 64 g granulated sugar

1. Bring the goat’s milk, cream and star anise to boil, then allow to steep for 30 minutes.
2. Rescale the total weight of milk and cream after it boils, adding more goat’s milk if necessary. At 104˚F, add milk powder, stabilizer, glucose powder and sugar. Bring to a boil, strain and rest overnight.
3. The next day, process in ice cream machine.

Speculoos Sablé

• 84 g confectioners’ sugar
• 133 g unsalted butter
• 50 g whole eggs
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3 g lemon juice
• 99 g cornstarch
• 49 g all-purpose flour
• 1 g salt
• 5 g ground cinnamon

1. Cream the confectioners’ sugar and butter together. Add the eggs, vanilla bean and lemon juice. Finish with dry ingredients mixing until just combined.
2. Roll out or sheet dough, then line just the sides of individual tart rings with it. Freeze until firm.
3. Par-bake for 4 minutes at 350˚ F.

Huckleberry Clafoutis

• 146 g granulated sugar
• 78 g all-purpose flour
• 97 g almond flour
• 194 g whole eggs
• 243 g heavy cream
• 243 g whole milk
• 140 g frozen huckleberries

1. Combine dry ingredients.
2. Combine wet ingredients, then hand-blend with dry ingredients. Allow to rest overnight in refrigerator.
3. Line bottom of par-baked rings with aluminum foil. Add 10 g frozen huckleberries to bottom of each tart ring, then pour over 80 g of the clafoutis base.  Bake at 350˚F until set and light golden on top, about 14 minutes.

Huckleberry Sauce

• 379 g huckleberries
• 76 g water
• 38 g granulated sugar
• 8 g maple syrup
• 1 g xanthan gum

1. Bring huckleberries, water, sugar and maple syrup to a boil.
2. Add to blender and process on high. Once smooth, sheer in xanthan gum and blend for 1 minute.

Huckleberry Tuiles

• 148 g confectioners’ sugar
• 175 g all-purpose flour
• 29 g Huckleberry Sauce (above)
• 148 g heavy cream

1. Place sugar and flour in food processor and while running machine, stream in liquid. Spread on Silpat and with a fine metal comb brush straight lines through batter.
2. Bake at 300˚F for 4 minutes and shape while inside oven.

Maple Butter

• 100 g maple syrup
• 10 g glucose powder
• 1 g lemon juice

1. Combine all ingredients and cook to 234˚F. Cool down to 68˚F. Once cooled, whip with a paddle until the butter becomes shiny and slightly loose. Store in refrigerator until firm.

Plating

1. Warm tart in oven for about 4 minutes. Pipe the sauce on the plate in random size dots. Once tart is out of oven, place on plate.  Put some sauce on the upper right hand side of the tart and a spoonful of Maple Butter on the bottom left hand side of the tart. Scoop the ice cream onto plate and finish with strips of Huckleberry Tuile on top.